2021 LEN EUROPEAN SHORT COURSE CHAMPIONSHIPS
- Tuesday, November 2nd – Sunday, November 7th
- Aquatics Palace, Kazan Russia
- SCM (25m)
- Prelim recap
- Results
Kira Toussaint of the Netherlands just ripped the fastest 200m backstroke of her career en route to topping the podium tonight in Kazan.
While competing on day 3 of the 2021 European Short Course Championships, Toussaint took the field by storm, firing off a mark of 2:01.26 to notch the only sub-2:02 result of the field.
Toussaint led from start to finish, producing a front half split of 1:00.04 before finishing it off in 1:01.22. Her 2:01.26 outing here not only crushed the 2:03.04 she put up 2 years ago in Glasgow for bronze, but it overtook her own Dutch national record of 2:02.09.
Toussaint logged that 2:02.09 just last month in Budapest at the 2nd stop of the FINA World Cup Series. Splits for the previous record included 59.40/1:02.69 so the 27-year-old showed a tad more patience on the front end to establish the new record.
The reigning European Short Course champion in this women’s 200m back, Margherita Panziera of Italy was downgraded to silver in 2:02.05. She was 2:01.45 2 years ago, while Toussaint took gold in the 50m and 100m backstroke events.
Lena Grabowski snagged Austria’s first medal of these Championships tonight, producing a new national record of 2:04.74 for bronze tonight. Grabowski’s time surpassed the previous Austrian national standard of 2:05.42 she logged in the earlier rounds here.
As fast as Toussaint’s swim was, she’ll need to get into the 2:00 territory to enter the list of top 10 all-time performers.
